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A Leaf from King Alfred’s Orosius
OTHERE, the old sea-captain, | |
| Who dwelt in Helgoland, | |
| To King Alfred, the Lover of Truth, | |
| Brought a snow-white walrus-tooth, | |
| Which he held in his brown right hand. | 5 |
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| His figure was tall and stately, | |
| Like a boy’s his eye appeared; | |
| His hair was yellow as hay, | |
| But threads of a silvery gray | |
| Gleamed in his tawny beard. | 10 |
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| Hearty and hale was Othere, | |
| His cheek had the color of oak; | |
| With a kind of laugh in his speech, | |
| Like the sea-tide of a beach, | |
| As unto the King he spoke. | 15 |
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| And Alfred, King of the Saxons, | |
| Had a book upon his knees, | |
| And wrote down the wondrous tale | |
| Of him who was first to sail | |
| Into the Arctic seas. | 20 |
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| “So far I live to the northward, | |
| No man lives north of me; | |
| To the east are wild mountain-chains, | |
| And beyond them meres and plains; | |
| To the westward all is sea. | 25 |
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| “So far I live to the northward, | |
| From the harbor of Skeringes-hale, | |
| If you only sailed by day, | |
| With a fair wind all the way, | |
| More than a month would you sail. | 30 |
| |
| “I own six hundred reindeer, | |
| With sheep and swine beside; | |
| I have tribute from the Finns, | |
| Whalebone and reindeer-skins, | |
| And ropes of walrus-hide. | 35 |
| |
| “I ploughed the land with horses, | |
| But my heart was ill at ease, | |
| For the old seafaring men | |
| Came to me now and then, | |
| With their sagas of the seas,— | 40 |
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| “Of Iceland and of Greenland, | |
| And the stormy Hebrides, | |
| And the undiscovered deep;— | |
| O, I could not eat nor sleep | |
| For thinking of those seas. | 45 |
| |
| “To the northward stretched the desert, | |
| How far I fain would know; | |
| So at last I sallied forth, | |
| And three days sailed due north, | |
| As far as the whale-ships go. | 50 |
| |
| “To the west of me was the ocean, | |
| To the right the desolate shore, | |
| But I did not slacken sail | |
| For the walrus or the whale, | |
| Till after three days more. | 55 |
| |
| “The days grew longer and longer, | |
| Till they became as one, | |
| And northward through the haze | |
| I saw the sullen blaze | |
| Of the red midnight sun. | 60 |
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| “And then uprose before me, | |
| Upon the water’s edge, | |
| The huge and haggard shape | |
| Of that unknown North Cape, | |
| Whose form is like a wedge. | 65 |
| |
| “The sea was rough and stormy, | |
| The tempest howled and wailed, | |
| And the sea-fog, like a ghost, | |
| Haunted that dreary coast, | |
| But onward still I sailed. | 70 |
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| “Four days I steered to eastward, | |
| Four days without a night; | |
| Round in a fiery ring | |
| Went the great sun, O King, | |
| With red and lurid light.” | 75 |
| |
| Here Alfred, King of the Saxons, | |
| Ceased writing for a while; | |
| And raised his eyes from his book, | |
| With a strange and puzzled look, | |
| And an incredulous smile. | 80 |
| |
| But Othere, the old sea-captain, | |
| He neither paused nor stirred, | |
| Till the King listened and then | |
| Once more took up his pen, | |
| And wrote down every word. | 85 |
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| “And now the land,” said Othere, | |
| “Bent southward suddenly, | |
| And I followed the curving shore | |
| And ever southward bore | |
| Into a nameless sea. | 90 |
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| “And there we hunted the walrus, | |
| The narwhale, and the seal; | |
| Ha! ’t was a noble game! | |
| And like the lightning’s flame | |
| Flew our harpoons of steel. | 95 |
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| “There were six of us all together, | |
| Norsemen of Helgoland; | |
| In two days and no more | |
| We killed of them threescore, | |
| And dragged them to the strand!” | 100 |
| |
| Here Alfred the Truth-Teller | |
| Suddenly closed his book, | |
| And lifted his blue eyes, | |
| With doubt and strange surmise | |
| Depicted in their look. | 105 |
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| And Othere the old sea-captain | |
| Stared at him wild and weird, | |
| Then smiled, till his shining teeth | |
| Gleamed white from underneath | |
| His tawny, quivering beard. | 110 |
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| And to the King of the Saxons, | |
| In witness of the truth, | |
| Raising his noble head, | |
| He stretched his brown hand, and said, | |
| “Behold this walrus-tooth!” | 115 |
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